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Zanzibar
Zanzibar, officially the Sovereign Kingdom of Zanzibar, is an island-state located in the Pacific Ocean some hundred nautical miles off the northern coast of Frequesue. It produces nearly 40 percent of the world's bananas, and is home to a unique and varied ecosystem that includes the king parrot, the world's only species of carnivorous moss, the Cowley subspecies of looter monkeys (named after a 17th century Shroomanian buccaneer who briefly holed up on the island in the 17th century), three bird families and six baobab species History Most archaeologists estimate that the human settlement of Zanzibar happened between 200 and 500 A.D., when seafarers from northeast Frequesue (probably from the regions now known as Coilerburg or Indhopal) arrived in outrigger sailing canoes. The settlers spread across the islands and first built a kingdom in the south of the islands in 1100 A.D. during the 'golden age' of the native Frequesuan empires (1100-1300 A.D.) The Kingdom of Zanzibar fought a series of skirmishes with invaders from the mainland in that time, which were repelled by Sundjata, the legendary 'Parrot King' of Zanzibar. King Sundjata then launched an expedition against the Kingdom of Sabika after the latter's Emperor Mari Sosso died of old age. Because of a bloody feud over the succession of the old emperor between the seven sons of Sosso the Sabikans were unable to mount a succesful defense, and by 1273 Sundjata's armied had conquered the better part of the region now known as Upper Sabika. Following the overthrow of the Kingdom of Sabika the new Empire of Zanzibar, as the new state was called, over the course of the following century slowly expanded south until it reached the Parána River (also known as the Yangtze River) in 1352, absorbing steadily more native statelets in the process. This sparked a process of 'nativization' where the heirs of Sundjata, who had come to the mainland as conquerors, progressively lost more of their influence to the mainland princes until by the 15th century the kings of Zanzibar ruled in name only; the Empire was de facto controlled by the princes who ran the mainland provinces; a situation reflected by the move of the capital to the Sabikan mainland in 1501. From then on the Empire of Zanzibar is frequently referred to as the Greater Sabikan Kingdom, to better reflect the true power structure of the state. In the first half of the 16th century the weak position of the King lead to strife between the ambitious princes, who vied for control over the mainland provinces and sapped the strength of the Empire in the process.It was this weakened state that Jacques-Bertrand Frequesque discovered on his round-the-world sailing expedition of 1541. The empire was wholly unprepared for the arrival of the conquistadors that followed. The pressure exerted by the increasingly aggressive and predominantly Shroomanian colonists that followed fractured the kingdom as trading companies played one prince against the other, dividing the kingdom into warring factions that could be easily controlled. So irreparable was the damage dealt with the Shroomanian colonialists that when Queen Mari Mema took the throne in 1641, the Greater Sabikan Kingdom had effectively ceased to exist. She decided to retreat to the island of Zanzibar with her loyal followers, leaving the mainland to its own devices. Legends say that as her ship pushed off the queen placed a mighty curse upon the "treacherous leper princes" who had brought down the once-mighty kingdom, and that in the years that followed they all died increasingly gruesome deaths. Through the latter half of the 17th century Mari Mema lead the restoration of Zanzibar; under her leadership her queendom repulsed several attempts by the Shroomanian Empire to annex the island in a series of increasingly bloody battles between the natives and the troops of the trade companies. These came to an end when the Shroomanian king sent a peace envoy in 1699, who came to an accord with the aging queen: the Empire would respect the sovereignty of Zanzibar in return for a trade license to operate ships out of the harbor of Port Mathurin, and a solemn promise not to interfere in the affairs of the Shroomanians in Frequesue. The island-kingdom spent the next two hundred years in relative isolation, only to emerge when the Shroomanian Empire began to fracture along its seams in the late 19th / early 20th century. Its populace, daunted by the uncertainties brought about by the dawn of the modern age, readily embraced a variety of economic and sociopolitical ideologies imported to Frequesue from the Old Continent and Messica, causing its political landscape to blossom into an unusually broad spectrum of clashing ideologies. As a result the island has since the end of the Second War of the Worlds been a battleground between not just isolationists who prefer to stay out of world affairs and expansionists who would like nothing better than to relive Sundjata's mainland conquests, but also between monarchists and republicans, socialists and libertarians, nationalists and internationalists. In the early 21st century, then, Zanzibar has proven itself a slightly schizophrenic and isolated state with a wildly fluctuating political landscape wherein numerous factions vie for dominance. Depending on the eb and flow of political power the goals, attitudes and policies of the state can shift on a monthly, and indeed sometimes daily, basis. Economy Population: 32 million GDP: 780 billion GDP per capita: $24,375 Local currency: Zanzibar Shilling '''Major industries: '''Bananas, tea, coffee, sugarcane, horticultural products, corn, wheat, rice, sisal, pineapples, pyrethrum, alcoholics '''Major imports: '''Manufactured goods '''Energy: '''Domestically generated through oil and gas generated powerplants Politics King Abubakari II An able but aging ruler who has lead the Kingdom for years, old King Abubakari II has always harbored a dream of restoring the Zanzibar Empire of old. Unfortunately with the formation of the NFT on the mainland this dream appears dashed, which has infuriated him to no end. Crown Princess Soniké Young, beautiful, independent, and arguably even more ambitious than her father, Crown Princess Soniké controls the state-owned banana farms. She appears warm and charming to her friends but can be ruthless and deadly if the situation calls for it. Unlike her father she dreams not of a political empire, but of an economic one. Prime Minister Yatenga A conniving politician, the prime minister is a card-carrying republican perpetually at odds with the Monarchy. Unfortunately his cabinet is supported by only a minute majority in the parliament; he suffers frequent defeat in legislative matters. Yatenga is bought by a ring of businessmen who wish to see the state's banana plantations privatized so they can take over that immensely profitable venture. Category:Nations of Frequesque Category:Non-aligned Nations Category:Nations